Search This Blog

Home

Subscribe to this blog

Subscribe

Pages

Posts

Finally, it's September 1st, the Day of Knowledge (as it is called here in Russia)! School starts officially today. But it falls on a weekend, so I might just as well relax. And it's not as if I have a first-grader or a graduating student to get all hyped up.

We went to church. I didn't go for the free massage that some loving brothers and sisters offer, but opted to go home instead, took out my guitar and changed the strings. By the time I was done, it was time to whip up something for dinner.

Dinner was great. I felt like a Big Momma, even with my 4' 11'' height, surrounded by my fast-growing children. Everybody was contributing to the conversation that the kids started themselves with the topic "Who is the Best Kid?" Each one has an opinion. Needless to say, each of them wanted me to answer the question.

And I know my answer. Wild Bear is the best eleven-year-old kid. He is very thoughtful and funny. Miss Angelika is the best nine-year-old kid. Sh…

I'm back. I'm back because I miss blogging. And because I need inspiration.

Kids are growing so fast and so am I. (Not physically. I'll probably stay a dwarf with a sack of potatoes for the rest of my life.) Life seems to be going on high speed that there's no time to process all that is happening.

Like, kids will be going back to school and I will be teaching in two schools. I have two weeks before all these will take place. And I need inspiration fast. I need to spend quality time with each of my kids, four of them, before all these precious time is lost with no intentional thought in mind. What's there to do?

When I was blogging, writing down my thoughts helped me move in a direction, one that means progress. But almost a year without it, just the lonely, occasional doodling in my notebook, I feel lost. I need inspiration fast!

What to do with the precious time I have with them that doesn't include bossing…

After five years of blogging, I'm going to say goodbye to this blog, The Road Home, that started me on a journey of fully discovering God's goodness. Life is tough. But God's goodness is tougher, as tough as water--- as it gently flows its way through mountains and rocks, shaping whatever comes its way.

The journey has been wonderful! I am humbled and grateful to have walked this road. God truly is my Shepherd. At a time when I needed clarity, wisdom and a safe place to be, He has opened His arms for me to rest and learn. And at this moment of my life, when many things are still uncertain, I am sure of this: I am home. As long as God is with me, wherever I may be, in His love I AM HOME.

This is a bitter-sweet moment, but I believe God is directing me to "green pastures", unbelievable as it may be with the overflowing cup He has placed in my hands. I just follow where He leads.

Thank you so much, dear friends, for your encouraging companionship in this journey. B…

Blow after blow. Life delivers accurately like a boxer's punches hitting you where it hurts the most. What do you do? Buckle down? Throw up your hands and run? Or hide? Or say, "Where is God?" Doubting Him as if He hasn't cared enough, loved enough or given enough proof that He does?

Sounds like Job's wife.

There was a great man named Job, God-fearing and blameless, who had everything--- a beautiful family and great possessions--- all that any man could dream of during his time. Then out of nowhere (for Job), catastrophe after catastrophe fell and he lost his children and all his possessions. Next, he got boils, painful to the core and occupying freely his skin from head to soles. That's when his wife spoke up: “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9).

It's so easy to turn into Job's wife, when the loving and responsible man you envisioned your husband to be morphs into less than what he seems, when the family you'…

"Mama, help! Bad boys are attacking us!"#3 barged into the house crying. My mama bear instinct went on full drive, but knowing Ella, she can cry over almost anything, even just a flying mosquito. Well, with all that unusually loud noises coming from the yard, I thought the kids had all the neighborhood children invited to come play with them. I tried to calm her down to get the details. But all I got was a lot of frantic, "Small boys are attacking us!" So I looked out of the window to see what all that fuss was about. What I saw was comical, well, for me.

Two small boys, about the ages of four or six, were trying to act tough, banging small shoulders on the locked gate. I turned to Ella and asked, "If they want to play with you, why don't you let them in?" It was better for me that other children come over to play with my kids than for my own to be away while I worry over whether they're behaving well or not.

Three days of sunshine! Yes, we got three days of sunshine and it was wonderful. But today, we have rain. Beautiful rain, creating diamonds on trees and making everything sparkle, like eyes full of anticipation, for the sun that will come again.

And there's more to anticipate and get excited about--- Jesus is coming soon!

The voice of one crying in the wilderness:“Prepare the way of the Lord;Make straight in the desertA highway for our God." (Isaiah 40:3)

We are to prepare for His coming... His highway.

But we know how easy it is to relegate that fact at the back of our minds as we day in and day out trudge through what is before us. And it is so easy to forget it, unless we invite Him into our lives, day by day by day. For, yes, that's how He come to us even as we prepare for His coming.

Before Jesus left, He promised His disciples:

“If you love me, keep my commandments.I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor,that he may be with you forever—the S…

Welcome!

Thanks for dropping by at my blog. I try to capture life in it's many colors and taste in words or pictures as I receive it with open hands. I hope you will find some ray of sunshine in this place, the sparkles through the rain, faith to get through storms and struggles, joy even in the puddles, hope for the better and grace to grow sweeter. Yes, there is beauty in imperfection. The Perfect One--- "He makes all things beautiful in His time" (Eccl. 3:11).